The 2025 edition of Welgemeend Art Month (6 August – 5 September), now in its twelfth year, reaffirms its commitment to the long-term preservation of the historic Welgemeend homestead, home to Cape Town’s much-loved winter arts festival.
Strauss & Co is pleased to announce details of its forthcoming multi-day live virtual auction of art, decorative arts, jewellery and fine wine, due to take place from Sunday, 8 November to Wednesday, 11 November 2020. This exciting bi-city initiative is titled NORTH/SOUTH and replaces the company’s traditional end-of-year city sales in Johannesburg and Cape Town with a consolidated virtual sale involving both offices simultaneously. While new in format and duration, NORTH/SOUTH is a showcase of everything Strauss & Co does best.
Strauss & Co’s ‘IMPR: Etchings and Linocuts by JH Pierneef’ achieved a white glove result, returning a 100% sell-through rate of all 29 lots offered. Pierneef was a master printmaker who produced exquisitely detailed and atmospheric etchings as well as stylised, daring and decorative linocuts. His earliest etchings were made in 1910, while he began
Strauss & Co’s October online-only auction, which is now open and runs until 8pm on Monday 19 October, offers a cornucopia of pleasures. The lot offerings encompass collectable art, jewellery and accessories, and fine wine. Highlights include Kanonkop’s CWG Paul Sauer, the ne plus ultra of South African wines, as well as luxurious ladies’ silk scarves and gentlemen’s silk ties by Hermès.
Emerging Painting Invitational – the pan-African emerging painting prize, launched by the Emerging African Art Galleries Association (EAAGA) in 2019 in Harare, Zimbabwe – like all international art events, faced a dilemma in 2020. The objective of EPI is to bring international attention and professional support to the widest diversity of young painters across Africa as well as to spotlight different art communities across the continent through the unique exhibition/conference/prize/art fair model.
Johannesburg – Interest in the work of Hylton Nel, the renowned artist-potter whose work inspired the Dior Men’s summer 2025 campaign, saw two cat sculptures smash their pre-sale estimates at a Strauss & Co auction in Johannesburg. Presented in Contemporary South African Ceramics: New Perspectives, a live-virtual auction celebrating new perspectives in ceramic art held
Dear Clients and Friends, I hope that you and your families are in good health and secure in these troubling times. I would like to personally thank you for your continued support of Strauss & Co, and for joining us on our dynamic digital journey over the course of 2020.
Cape Town’s HEAT Winter Arts Festival returns this August with a bold, multi-genre programme focussed on Other Worldliness – this year’s theme. From August 6 to 16, audiences can look forward to over 13 exhibitions in walking distance at some of the city centre’s leading art galleries. Additionally, there is a stunning theatre and music
JH “Henk” Pierneef demonstrated his enduring appeal at Strauss & Co’s R55-million Spring sale, held in Cape Town on 7 October, achieving a total of R9.65 million from nine lots sold. The top lot, a monumental study of interlaced camelthorn trees in a landscape near Thabazimbi, sold for R2.73 million. The results marked a welcome return to form for Pierneef, whose prices had been diluted by a recent fire sale by a distressed collector.
This past year, Strauss & Co handled a fair share of emerald jewellery. Each piece we consigned revealed the stone’s captivating beauty and depth of colour. Consider an emerald ring in your hand, one you must appraise and find a new home for. Before beginning that process, pause to contemplate the remarkable journey this stone
